There’s a lot of discussion and disagreement these days about whether or not issues of equality and social justice belong in the secularist/atheist/skeptic movements. How you answer depends on how you understand “belong.” It is perfectly possible to be an atheist and skeptic while not being an egalitarian, because atheism and skepticism don’t entail egalitarianism as a matter of logic, according to writer Ophelia Benson.

On the other hand, atheism and secularism do make a comfortable fit with egalitarianism, and they have historically been companions. Theism is often closely connected with female subordination, so atheism is often closely connected with gender equality. It is not a matter of marching orders or mandates but a matter of compatibility.

Benson has operated the website Butterflies and Wheels for more than 10 years. Her blog of the same name is on the Freethought Blogs network.

Benson co-authored three books with Jeremy Stangroom: The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense; Why Truth Matters; and Does God Hate Women? She is also a columnist for Free Inquiry, The Freethinker, and The Philosophers’ Magazine.

Come and celebrate the longest night of 2012 five days early (and before the alleged end of the world!) with an afternoon of music (The Heathens will be back!) and fun! Socialize with evil secularists and the dreaded skeptics. Eat, drink, and shop at the CFI-L.A. bookstore for holiday presents. Plus, we’ll have another silent auction.

When skeptics and secular humanists are asked to appear on TV shows, they usually understand that they will get a small percentage of airtime in the final product. While giving the impression of balanced journalism, most shows that sensationalize paranormal claims, alleged monster sightings, or reports of miracles devote the vast majority airtime to the believer side. Seasoned skeptic media representatives know this.

But when the Dr. Phil Show contacted CFI-L.A. Executive Director Jim Underdown to give the skeptical side of a discussion about psychic powers, he was assured that Dr. Phil was a fellow skeptic. What aired not only showed that Dr. Phil was no skeptic, but also didn’t even fairly represent what occurred in the studio on the day of the taping. This talk will tell the true story of what happened.

Underdown is the founder and chair of the Independent Investigations Group (IIG), the largest paranormal investigations team in the world. The IIG, in conjunction with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, offers a $50,000 prize for anyone who can prove paranormal ability. Underdown’s work has been published in Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry magazines, and he has appeared on numerous TV shows including, Oprah Winfrey, Penn & Teller’s Bullshit, History’s Mysteries, Miracle Detectives, Proof Positive, Weird or What, Hannity and Colmes, and many more. Jim was a regular judge on the 10th season of Battle of the Psychics, shot this spring in Kiev, Ukraine.

Our current understanding of the universe incorporates ideas that seem absurd: Space is expanding and accelerating. Most of the “stuff” of the universe isn’t the protons and neutrons that a generation was taught to believe.

Why does science take these things seriously? Leonard Tramiel, coordinator of the Center for Inquiry-San Francisco, will explain the evidence and thought process that have forced a fundamental re-examination of our understanding of the nature of our universe. The result is both strange and deeply satisfying.

Tramiel, who also is on the Editorial Board for Skeptical Inquiry and Executive Council of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, holds a PhD in Physics from Columbia University. He is a retired hi-tech executive with a deep interest in science, science education, and public attitudes toward science.

The Threat to the Supreme Court: The Presidential Election and the Future of Church/State Separation

Sun., October 21, 2012

11 a.m. – Hollywood4:30 p.m. – Costa Mesa

A shift of just one vote on the Supreme Court could nullify 65 years of solid precedent demanding that nonbelievers be equal before the law. In this presentation, local constitutional lawyer and CFI-L.A. Chair Eddie Tabash will provide specific quotes from Supreme Court justices to show the open hostility to atheists and even religious dissenters.

Tabash also is on the board of directors of CFI-Transnational. In addition, he chairs the First Amendment Task Force of the Council for Secular Humanism, serves as chair of the nationwide legal committee of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and is known for his work directed at protecting full legal equality for everyone regardless of perspective on matters of religion.

Tabash is also one of the most well-known atheist spokespeople in the country.

A professional mentalist who specializes in magic of the mind, Mark Edward has the psychic blues. What’s more, Edward’s new book is called Psychic Blues, which he will discuss at the Center.

“Mark Edward is an equivocator, fibber, and mountebank,” comments Joel Moskowitz of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. “Which begs the question: if a liar admits to lying, can he be telling the truth? He is a literate, informative, intellectual, a student of the psychology of humans, a foe of those who would defraud the public for personal gain, and as an author and practicing psychic, he is first and foremost an entertainer.”

For more than 30 years, Edward has appeared in world class venues from high-end night clubs and theaters to private party and corporate events. As one of only five specially chosen and trained mediums in the history of Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle, he has performed 15 years of seances that helped him perfect the role of spirit medium and psychic entertainer. During this time he wrote several books on these subjects and appeared on television as both primary consultant and on-air performer for a variety of TV programs, including as A & E’s biography of Houdini, The Discovery Channel’s “Forces Beyond,” and, most recently, on two episodes of “Weird or What?” with William Shatner. His featured segment as a spirit medium on the pilot episode, “Speaking with the Dead,” of Showtime’s “Penn & Teller’s Bullshit!” series helped secure an Emmy Award nomination for that episode in 2002.

Edward continues to be consulted by the media for his knowledge of spiritualism, psychic fraud and ghost lore and works on the Steering Committee of CFI’s Independent Investigations Group.

Over nine million parents in the U.S. are raising children without religion. Are you one of them?

Yes? Then you won’t want to miss this unique seminar with author and educator Dale McGowan, who offers encouragement and practical solutions for secular parenting in a religious world.

Based on the freethinking philosophy of the book Newsweek called “a compelling read,” the Parenting Beyond Belief Seminar is empowering secular parents across the country to raise ethical, caring, confident kids without religion.

See Additional Details for more information (scroll down).

Participants will learn effective ways to:

* Encourage religious literacy without indoctrination

* Help kids interact productively with a religious world

* Help kids develop active moral reasoning

* Address sensitive issues with religious relatives

* Help children develop a healthy understanding of death and a joyful love of life

* Build a family atmosphere of fearless questioning and boundless wonder

* How to challenge church/state separation issues in the public schools

Additional Details:

Registration includes: Workbook for each paying adult, childcare/kids’ programming, and lunch for the whole family. (Space is limited for childcare - register early to reserve a spot.)

Childcare provided by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science-US.

Dissent is often seen as a luxury, a privilege to be tolerated in times of peace and prosperity. But when the enemy is at the gates, dissent is considered a treasonous threat to survival. But like so much conventional wisdom, the best research and a careful reading of history suggests that “United We Stand” is precisely the wrong advice. Dale McGowan examines that research and history, making the case for messy dissent over tidy unity.

McGowan is editor and co-author of Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers, the first comprehensive resources for parenting without religion. Dale was named 2008 Harvard Humanist of the Year and serves as founding executive director of Foundation Beyond Belief, a humanist charitable organization. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Becca and their three children.

McGowan will be holding a special workshop at the Center for Inquiry-L.A. the day before his talk.

Just how great is the danger that terrorists will secretly construct and then detonate a nuclear bomb in a major city? Would a “dirty bomb” really kill thousands? How much plastic explosive is necessary to take down an airplane? Is it feasible to mix the fabled “binary liquid explosive” in an airliner restroom? Finally, if all this mayhem is as easy to accomplish as we have been led to believe, why hasn’t there been a single incident of mass murder by terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11?

In researching his new book, Who’s Winning the War on Terror, author Richard E. Wackrow concludes that most of the thinking behind the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies’ efforts to protect America from the specter of terrorism seems to be based on the fanciful science of Bruce Willis movies. In his talk, Wackrow also will look at how acceptance of this sloppy science, from citizens to the national government, has nurtured the growth of a terrorism-industrial complex that devours resources that could be used more intelligently elsewhere, keeps a majority of Americans in a continuing state of anxiety over the possibility of another major terrorist attack, and thus accomplishes the goals of terrorism itself.

Wackrow is a retired print journalist living in Montana. A former reporter and editor for suburban newspapers in several markets, as well as a writer for the Dallas Morning News, Entrepreneur magazine, and other major publications, Wackrow has been appalled by what he saw as the excesses, waste and civil liberties violations resulting from a war on terrorism. He emerged from retirement in 2005 to establish a Web site concentrating on Fourth Amendment issues, resulting in the writing of his meticulously researched first book.

$8.00 for Adults; Students $4.00 - Free for Friends of the Center

11:00 AM
CFI-Los Angeles
4773 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027

The lecture will be repeated at 4:30 in Costa Mesa.
Costa Mesa Community Center
1845 Park Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA

Re-Inventing Scott: Science in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

Sunday, Dec. 4th - 11 a.m.

Over the 100 years since his death on his return from the South Pole, Robert F. Scott’s image has shifted from tragic hero to Victorian bungler. Without excusing Scott’s mistakes, Edward J. Larson in his new book, An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science, seeks to restore some balance to Scott’s image by looking at the role of science in his polar expeditions. Scott may have been trying to do too much on his expeditions, at least as compared to the single-minded quest for the pole that propelled Amundsen’s expedition, but they nevertheless left a lasting legacy in Antarctic research and discovery.

Larson, the Pepperdine University Professor of History who holds the Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law and is a visiting professor of law at Stanford University, received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History for Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. The author of eight books, including several on evolution, and more than 100 articles, Larson writes mostly about issues of science., medicine and law from an historical perspective. An expert on the history of science and exploration of the Galapagos, which he has visited more than 20 times, Larson has led classes to the islands on four different occasions and frequently lectured on cruise ships.